‘They never found the body… what if decides to come back here?‘
Terrifier was a simple film. Killer clown. Violent deaths. Shock ending. An enjoyable self contained story that put writer-director Damien Leone on the map. The sequel, Terrifier 2, has received an unusual amount of buzz for a small budget, indie horror film. Even more unusually, it has been a massive box office success, taking over $10 million at the time of writing from a $250k budget. And yet, it doesn’t really improve on the original…
Art the Clown (David Howard Thornton) is back, and he’s more demented than ever. This time, he’s brought a sidekick, a ghoulish child also sporting clown makeup and credited only as The Little Pale Girl (Amelie McLain). The subject of their ire this time is Sienna (Lauren LaVera) and her little brother Jonathan (Elliott Fullam), a pair of siblings with a dark past.
This time round, Leone has gone big. A running time of two and a half hours is unheard of for a movie like this (and it also proves to be unnecessary), but that’s not the only tweak from the format of the original. Our characters are much more fleshed out this time around, and while this does make the inevitable death sequences more gruesome, it also robs the film of some of its narrative thrust. The Little Pale Girl is undoubtedly successful when judged purely on her creepiness factor, but the concept is muddled and confusing. This character also pushes the whole film in the direction of the supernatural which renders some of the violence less effective. But Jesus Christ, the violence…
…I have never seen death sequences in any horror film like the ones in this movie. Sure, the fact they are so over-the-top means that they occasionally feel a little cartoony, but I can also see how reports of fainting and vomiting in cinemas may well be true. Nothing is off limits here. This makes the Saw franchise look like My Little Pony, and even more obscure films like The Human Centipede and Martyrs can’t compete with the level of violence that is gleefully displayed here. It really is a sight to behold, and if you like that kinda thing, you will love this movie. Me? I enjoy it to an extent, but as with 2021’s The Sadness, it sometimes feels here like the violence is all this movie really has, and the attempts to add more of a conventional three act story structure don’t really work. It all falls apart in the opaque final act in which a number of spinning plates crash to the ground without ever being properly resolved.
Terrifier 2 is set to become an iconic horror sequel, and I totally understand why. For me, it feels more like a missed opportunity than the landmark horror moment it is being heralded as. Don’t believe the hype.